A fresh investigative report has brought to light a previously unexplored avenue in the long-running investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The development suggests authorities may have prematurely narrowed their focus on a single individual.
According to the report, Portuguese officials have requested an inquiry into a British man and his German wife. This request followed a statement from the man’s sister to police, in which she indicated her brother might possess undisclosed information related to the case. The sister reportedly described her brother as an alcoholic who had seemed to conceal a distressing secret since the time of the child’s disappearance in 2007.
The report further alleges that German law enforcement, which has been leading the recent phase of the investigation, declined to pursue this lead. Authorities reportedly rejected a request to deploy an undercover officer to befriend the German woman in question, who was suspected of possibly being involved in a hit-and-run incident. The decision was framed as a choice to concentrate exclusively on the existing prime suspect, Christian Brückner, thereby sidelining other potential lines of inquiry.
Details from witness statements place the British-German couple near the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, where the McCann family was staying. A neighbor reported hearing the couple arguing intensely on the day after Madeleine vanished. This account reportedly aligns with another statement given to police in 2007 by a woman who overheard her neighbors arguing on May 4th.
The report also references an alleged sighting of a young girl in a vehicle identical to one linked to the German woman. Investigators reportedly theorized the woman could have struck the child with her car and subsequently panicked.
The British man at the center of this new theory is now deceased. It remains unclear whether the German woman is still alive. This development follows a recent, unsuccessful police search for McCann’s remains in an area a few miles from the resort.
Christian Brückner, the man officially designated as a suspect by German prosecutors, remains incarcerated on unrelated charges. However, if insufficient evidence is found to connect him to McCann’s disappearance, he is scheduled for release later this year.
